


Convalesce Love

by Kaida_Daygona



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe, Anorexia, F/F, Highschool AU, Recovery relationship, tags will change as needed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-08-17
Updated: 2013-01-08
Packaged: 2017-11-12 08:56:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/489072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaida_Daygona/pseuds/Kaida_Daygona
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You've never been popular in school.  This year is no different, so you've become guarded.  When a new student comes who insists on talking to you, will you finally have someone close to you?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this is the first relationship purely F/F so wish me luck! I'm going to try my best

You walk to class, head downcast, books clutched tightly to your thin frame. Trying desperately to hide your face with the little dark brown hair you have, you walk briskly to class. You really don’t feel like being caught in the halls just to be tormented. 

Slipping through the door soundlessly, you quickly take your place at the front of the classroom. As usual, you're the first one here, but that doesn’t bother you. The teachers are some of the few people who genuinely talk to you. There are a few students who will talk to you in passing, but they aren’t really friends. The only place you really have friends is in the chest club, and unfortunately you don’t see any of them until after school.

But as long as you aren’t being physically bullied, you can deal with the solitude of being looked upon as a freak. You really can’t blame them; you’re body is lanky from being so thin and you just look awkward. 

You pull out your sketch book but stare at it before sighing sadly and slipping it back into your pile. You haven’t really had the inspiration to create anything lately; you have just been in a perpetual slump.

Sitting with your head rested on your hand, you wait until the class fills up and finally the teacher walks in as the bell rings.

You zone out as she begins talking, before you hear a very firm, “Calliope?” You snap you attention to her immediately, lime eyes wide with surprise. “What Ms. Hall?” You ask, biting at your lip. You usually don’t zone but you had read ahead and were quite bored.

“We’re supposed to have a new attendee, would you go fetch her from the office for me deary?” She asks, smiling sweetly at you. “Yes, I’d be happy to,” you reply politely before realizing that’s probably not how students are supposed to talk to teachers.

You’re supposed to be cold and off to the teacher right?

Your brows furrow in frustration at socially acceptable and unacceptable acts as you walk out the door, grabbing the hall pass with your slender fingers before you're completely out.

Now that the halls are empty, you can actually enjoy the school. It’s really not a bad place, the school is pretty neat, or at least you think so from what you’ve heard about other places.

Talented students will sometimes get to paint things on the walls, such as depiction from stories. You’re hoping you get your chance this year, seeing as how you’re going into the AP Art class finally. You sigh, wide eyes moving to set on the end of the hallway.

When you reach the end of the hall, the office is in plain sight in the main lobby; you walk up to the door of the office before gently pushing on the door and slipping inside. The lady behind the desk looks up and smiles at you, “Are you here from Ms. Hall’s class to pick up the new student?” she asks and you nod, smiling timidly at her.

Even though you’ve never had many adults at the school be outright rude to you, you still get very fretful about speaking to them. Speaking to anyone, really.

“Roxy, your classmate is here to help you to your first class,” she says, and you see a girl stand up from an area you couldn’t see from your position.

She grins at you widely and walks toward you, her pink and purple striped scarf swaying in her wake. As she comes up to you, she blows a stray strand of soft light blond hair out of her face and then juts out her hand. You give her a flabbergasted look, wondering if she actually wants you to shake her hand.

Before you have much time to think though, she grabs your bony hand up and gives it a firm shake. “Hi, I’m Rox-Roxy, I mean,” She snickers, pink eyes crinkling up. You give her a cautious look, “Uh…hi I’m Calliope,” you reply slowly. You shift uncomfortably when she doesn’t immediately let go of your hand. 

As bad as it sounds, this girl is making you nervous by how extroverted she’s being towards you. She seems nice enough, but you’re sure once she finds out how everyone treats you, she’ll be exactly like them.

You gently slide your hand out of hers and motion towards the door. “Well let’s get going then I guess,” you say, turning to start towards the door. “You wouldn’t want to miss too much of the lesson.”

Slipping out of the office, you hold the door open for Roxy; she just keeps smirking at you. “So whatd’ya like to do ‘round here,” she asks, her words slurring together slightly. Is she alright?

“Well uh, I’m not much of a club attendee, but we have a lot of different choices. I personally am in the chess club, but you know most people don’t like it so it’s small,” you shrug, smiling slightly at the thought of the little club. It’s perfect. “Oh that sounds like fun,” she replies, and you give her a disbelieving look. “You like chess?” you ask her incredulously. “Yep! I might not be the best at it though.”

This girl does not strike you as the chess playing kind.

Right about then you get to the door of your classroom. “Well, we’re here,” you say, before walking inside and bee-lining for your desk. 

Roxy sort of stands there in the doorway, full blond hair swaying with her head as she turns her gaze from you to the teacher. Ms. Hall smiles at her, “Hi there, want to take a seat? Wherever is fine,” she says and Roxy nods, looking a little relieved. She takes the seat behind you.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

As soon as the bell rings, you begin your usual ritual of packing your stuff up as fast as possible and getting the fuck out of there to get to your next class. 

As you get up and pick up your pile of books, a hand on your shoulder successfully makes you stop and jump slightly in panic simultaneously. “Oh sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” You hear Roxy’s light voice say.

You turn your head slightly so your green eyes can meet her bright pink ones. “It’s ok, did you need something?” you ask, your voice tinted with slight annoyance. You really don’t want to be in the halls longer than you need to be. 

“Well uh, I was wondering where this class is, I haven’t been around this school at all honestly,” Roxy says, her thin eyebrows furrowing in confusion. As she looks back up she grins lopsidedly at you and you curse having to be nice to anyone who talks to you. 

You grab her schedule up and take a look. “Actually, that class is really close to mine, I’ll point you towards the door as I pass,” you say. She’s heading to calculus while your destination is art class.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

You sigh as you sit down with your lunch, rubbing your forehead slowly. Someone had jabbed your in the side earlier with their hand, and it was hard it enough that it was still throbbing. If anyone had said anything to you so far you had let it fly over your head.

As you begin to eat slowly, you see a slender figure walking towards you. You look up to see Roxy bee-lining the best she can towards you.

“Hey!” she says cheerily as she sits across from you. You sigh, not wanting to start liking her for her to just start jeering you. “Hello,” you reply after you swallow what you have in your mouth. “Where’s everyone else, you don’ sit alone d’ya?” She asks, the puzzlement meeting her eyes. You cringe slightly at her slurs.

You shrug, “Yeah I do most of the time actually.” She gives you an unsatisfied look, “well I’ll sit with you if you’d like,” she smiles smoothing her skirt out as she gets comfortable.

Rolling your green eyes slightly, you return to picking at your food as she chatters about her day in classes.

Right before the bell to end lunch rings, she holds her hand out, “Hey, let me see your phone,” she says. You give her a baffled look, “uhm, I really don’t want my phone taken up,” you reply. She makes a face and waves her hand slightly, “Promise I won’t get it taken,” she says and you reluctantly hand her your phone. She puts it under the table immediately and a minute or two later she hands it back and checks her own phone. “I put my number in there and sent a text to my phone so now we have each other’s numbers,” She says, smiling.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Since there was no chess today after the final bell you quickly make your way to the art room. The teacher there is lovely and never minds you coming in to work on whatever you’d like. You always do that when you’re waiting on your dad, who is always late. Plus you don’t want to wait with your twin brother.

After about thirty minutes of painting you feel your phone vibrate in your pocket.

|From: Caliborn|

|‘HEY, GET YOuR uGLY ASS OUT HERE, DAD IS HERE’|

It practically screams at you. You sigh as you quickly put everything up. “Bye Mrs. Hopkins,” you call out and hear “Bye sweetie,” as a reply.

As you reach the car you’re met with a glare from your twin brother’s red brown eyes. He runs a hand tinted with darker skin than yours through his buzz cut hair. “Geez, what’d you do take a detour through the longest way possible?” he asks, annoyance lacing his voice heavily. 

“No,” you sigh as you feel the car jerk into motion. “I tried my best to get over here as fast as possible,” you mumble reply, not wanting to speak with him anymore. “My ass you did,” he replies, settling down in his seat more. Your father doesn’t really say anything and you’re thankful for that.

 

When you all get home you slip up and into your room as fast as possible. You lean sit on your bed, grateful to finally be in the protection of the confines of your room. As awful as those two are they generally won’t bother you if you are in your room. You get seated at your small desk to begin working on some homework.

 

After a few hours you feel your stomach clench rather tightly. You don’t really feel hunger pangs anymore because you don’t eat properly, but you figure you might as well grab something. You poke your head out of your door frame and look around for any sign of your brother. 

Determining that you’re going to go no matter what, you head down the small hall and down the stairs. The house is a total wreck but you’re not really in the rest of the house enough to care very much. When you get to the kitchen you start digging around in the cabinets, seeing if there is anything small. 

“You sure you need to eat anything?” You hear Caliborn’s voice ask. You sigh and look at him, “Well I mean, I am getting slightly hungry,” you say in reply, rolling back off of your tip toes. “Really? Because you’re getting kind of fat, you know?” he states, smiling evilly at you. You draw your mouth back into a thin line, withdrawing your hand from the cabinet. “No I’m not,” you say logically. You know your skinny, too skinny, but his words still dig at you. 

“Yes you are, and you’re going to eat us out of house and home,” he sneers back. 

Oh yep, there the hunger is gone now, successfully prodding on your anorexia. You walk briskly past him and back to your room. After successfully locking yourself in for the rest of the night, you curl up on your bed and look at the random drawings on your wall. 

When you finally decide to get ready for bed at eight, with no more homework you lay down in the dark and stare idly at the ceiling. 

You finally start to drift off when you hear a buzzing. You open your eyes, confused and sit up. On your computer desk, you can see the glowing of your cell phone screen.

You slip out of the embrace of the covers to retrieve it and then get comfortable again. Then you finally flip open your phone, the light blinding you temporarily, wondering who could possibly be texting you.

|From: Roxy Lalonde|

|Hey, wats up, watr u dong, doin*| 

You read, eyebrows knitting together. Was she drunk or did she always talk like that?

|To: Roxy Lalonde|

|Uhmmm, i’m jUst laying here in bed, i gUess that’s all really|

You reply. After a few moments your phone vibrates again.

|From: Roxy Lalonde|

|tats cool, hey, i forgot to ask, whats your last naem? i forgot to put that n my phone|

You sigh as you type out your reply.

|To: Roxy Lalonde|

|my last name is English|

|From: Roxy Lalonde|

|oh, thats prtety, ok ill put that in my phone|

You put the phone down, not really knowing how to continue the conversation. But before long you feel the phone vibrate again.

|From: Roxy Lalonde|

|hey, when is your chess club meeting?| 

|To: Roxy Lalonde|

|tomorrow actUally, after the last class of the day|

|From: Roxy Lalonde|

|cool, im gonna come then! well ill let u sleep, g’night calliopee!|

|To: Roxy Lalonde|

|good night|

You click the phone shut and put it on your night stand, quickly turning on your alarm. You sigh out as you let your eyes slide shut again. You don’t know what to think of Roxy yet.


	2. Chapter 2

The infuriating sound of an alarm brings you back to the waking world. You yawn drowsily, even though you got plenty of sleep and let your hand clunk down, successfully silencing the chattering clock. You shiver slightly since you can’t really contain body heat. 

You groan as you roll out of bed, connecting your feet to the floor while your body is still lying down. Your not sure why but mornings are always hard. Probably because you dread school. At least this is the last year you have to attend that horrid. 

Surely college will be different. If you can afford it that is.

You finally convince yourself to get up for the day; grabbing some clothes, you quickly head to the bathroom. You always wake up extremely early to avoid any conflict with Caliborn, because he makes a huge deal if you’re anywhere near the bathroom when he wakes up. Even though you take a lot less time than he does.

When the warm water hits your freezing skin you sigh in relief, just letting the sensation overtake you for a short blissful moment.

After your ablutions, you head back to your room and pick up one of your favorite books. They’re complicated, but you enjoy the challenge. It’s by the famous author Rose Lalonde, though how her books sold, you’re not sure. Even though you love the series, many people can’t handle reading and comprehending them. 

You think it’s odd that Roxy has the same last name. What a strange coincidence.

After flipping through the book to your favorite parts, you hear the shower turn on. You double check and make sure everything is ready to go, slipping on your black tennis shoes

Finally the time comes when you hear Caliborn yelling at you to come on, even though he literally just left the bathroom because you could hear the door open. You sigh and put your beloved book down and pick up your school books and head down the small hall to the stairs. The stairs lead right to the front door so you just stand there awkwardly, bony shoulders hunched slightly as you wait. 

Finally Caliborn comes down the stairs, giving you a dirty look as he passed. He comes back shortly, your father walking in his wake, same red-brown eyes glaring a hole through you. You shrink into yourself as much possible and follow them outside. 

You really wish you could have your own car, so you wouldn’t have to deal with them, but your dad is saving up to get Caliborn’s right now and you don’t have a job to save up for your own.

You gaze out of the window pensively, watching the buildings pass. When you finally get to school you slip out quickly and go straight inside. There’s a big group of kids that linger outside, and that group has all of your brother’s friends in it.

They snicker and whisper as you zip by. 

When you get to Ms. Hall’s English class in record time, someone is actually there before you. Roxy.

“Heyyyy,” she beams at you, waving even though you’re the only one there. You raise one thin brown eyebrow up, “Good morning,” you reply, trying to smile stiffly back in response as you continue to your seat. She doesn’t seem fazed by the awkwardness of your smile and continues to ramble. “So, I really want to see the chess club, and I think I may have to go somewhere for lunch so in case I don’t see you again where is it?” She quirks a questioning eyebrow up.

“It’s in room 102,” you reply, glancing at her. Her big pink eyes are trained on you though and it makes you extremely uneasy, so you opt to look at the wall. More people walk in the room and you hear the click clack of the teacher’s heels. 

“I’ll be there,” she states as you begin to turn around in your desk. “It might be boring…” you mumble back to her and out of your peripheral you can see her shrug. “I think it’ll be fun.”

 

When class ends you get up quickly get up and start to bolt like you usually do. You hear the light pitter patter of step catching up to you and then Roxy is walking with you at your same brisk pace. “Man, I’m not sure if I’m digging this Calculus class,” she rambles off without prompt. “I’m just not so big into math, I much prefer writing.” She continues.

“Oh really?” you supply. You didn’t think she looked like the Calculus type. “Yeah,” she replies, “I mean I had to take a test yesterday showing the teacher what I knew and like it didn’t take me long but I just don’t like math.”

You look around while she continues, noticing people looking at the two of you, staring and whispering. You panic a little and speed up. Roxy matches your pace without question, still talking. 

“Oh well I guess this is my class,” she mumbles, slowing down. “I’ll see you later Calliopee!” she exclaims as she enters the room. 

Why did she just pronounce your name like that?

You wave the thought off and continue quickly to art.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

“Hey,” you hear a familiar voice say from behind you. You turn around quickly smiling, “Hey Aranea, how are you today?” you ask happily. The chess club makes you so happy, even though you really don’t see or hang out with these people outside of it. At least you belong here.

You both walk over where two others are sitting. Like you said to Roxy, your club isn’t big and sometimes not even all the members are here. But right now Nepeta is there grinning happily, like usual along with her best friend Equius. You’re not sure why Equius can’t wait for Nepeta elsewhere sense he never seems to enjoy himself but oh well.

“Hi Calliope,” Nepeta purrs out and you smile at her, “Hi Nepeta,” you reply as you sit down. There are some chess boards that you guys just use to casually play. As you all are getting the boards set up you hear the door open. All of you look towards the door where you see Roxy standing, having stopped in her tracks. “Uhh, Hi,” she says starting up again and walking towards you. She sits down beside you while everyone kind of glances awkwardly.

You sigh inwardly, having forgotten she said she would come. “Everyone, this is Roxy, she’s new. Roxy, this is Aranea, Nepeta, and Equius,” you point each person out as you list them off. Aranea and Nepeta smile at her and greet her while Equius sits in his chair looking like Nepeta’s personal body guard.

“Well at least we have an even number now,” Aranea says over you, looking at Roxy. “Yeah, Equius nevuurr wants to play with us,” Nepeta adds. They slide a board to your side of the table which means you’ll be playing against Roxy.

“Oh here, I’ll move,” she states as she gets up and moves to the other side of the table for easier play.

You both play in comfortable silence, only voicing your movements on the board. Roxy isn’t half bad actually. You look up at her as she takes a longer than usual period of time to contemplate the board. Her pink eyes are shrouded with thought, her eyebrows knit.

She really is quite pretty. Her blond hair has a healthy shine and shape, which accents her face nicely. Her pink eyes burn bright against her fair skin. She looks up and you finally realize that you’re staring; have been staring at her. You look down quickly at the table, feeling a blush rise up your face. Roxy quirks a corner of her mouth up in a questioning smile, watching you.

“It’s your turn,” she finally states, and you look at the board. Her pieces and yours have danced around each other while both of you have been getting points here and there.

After a few more minutes, she has got your king in checkmate. You sit there in silence, slightly stunned. You really had her pinned all wrong. Her black lips curve up into a smile, “Well that was fun.” “Yeah,” you agree as you look over the board. She had used a strategy you hadn’t seen before.

You hear Aranea speak up right then. “Whoa, you beat Calliope? That’s crazy you must be a pro,” she says, leaning up to look at the board for herself. Roxy waves it off, “I used to play with my mom some. We weren’t avid players, but she would always win if I didn’t keep my guard up.”

She has that lopsided grin as she talks, and you wonder what she’s really like past her first impression.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

“How are you getting home?” Roxy asks you and you look up at her. Everyone is packing their stuff to go home. “Eh, sometimes I’ll walk to a bus stop or Aranea will take me home if she has time,” you shrug as you pick up your stack of books and hug them to your chest. Aranea looks over and gives you an apologetic smile, “sorry, but you know how my little sister can get and she’s riding home with me today since she had a club meeting today too.” “It’s all fine,” you smile in response, waving it off.

“I could take you home,” Roxy states quickly, excitement meeting her eyes. “Uhm, ok,” you respond, suddenly nervous. Again, the whole being at the bottom of the social food chain is making you freak out. After you both have your stuff together the two of you head to the school’s student parking lot. You walk awkwardly, not used to being at this part of the school.

Roxy fishes around in her pocket, pulling out a set of keys with what looks like an odd pink kitty keychain. 

Does that cat have four eyes?

She slows to a walk and you look up to see yourself heading towards a cute light pink bug. “Oh that’s cute,” you admit, feeling slightly envious that she has a car at all, one like that to boot. “Thanks,” She smiles almost shyly, “I really like pink…obviously. My mom got this for me for attending this school.”

You slip in to the black interior which is almost stifling even though the temperature outside isn’t this hot. “Sorry, sorry, I’ll have it cooled off in a jiffy,” she says hurriedly.

She pulls out of the parking lot with the car successfully cooling down efficiently. “So where do you live?” she asks, glancing over at you with pink eyes, “I have a GPS if you’d rather just type it in there, it’s in the glove compartment,” she states and you sigh in relief, pulling that out. You’re really bad with directions.

After you have entered the address you reach around her pink fuzzy dice to clip the GPS onto the window.

“Oh hey,” she smiles looking at the address, “that street is just a branch off the main street I take home, I could take you home everyday,” she giggles. You…actually wouldn’t mind her picking you up. “Yeah but that would be a hassle,” you reply, looking at your clasped hands. You twiddle your bony thumbs. “Nah, if ya’d like I’d even pick you up in the mornings, I love spending time with friends,” Roxy replies.

“Only if you want,” you reply shrugging nonchalantly. “So what do you like to do outside of school?” You ask, changing the subject. You’d like to get to know more about her anyway. 

“Oh…you know, I just kind of write fanfictions and watch cat videos,” she shrugs and then turns sharply onto the next road. You clutch onto the door, eyes growing wide in fright. “Oh sorry, I drive crazy,” she replies, smiling apologetically. 

After you stop panicking you ask, “fanfictions? What for?” you ask, raising a questioning eyebrow. “Oh you know…just some really unpopular books,” she blushes and it’s actually rather cute. “What books?” you ask smiling, trying to encourage her. She glances at you again and sighs, deflating some. “Well it’s called Complacency of the Learned, and also there is another one she labeled just RL with her stupid initials that’s even less popular than that,” she mutters out. Your jaw drops half a mile. “Wait, you’ve read complacency of the Learned? AND the author’s other story about the demon?” you ask, your voice hitting a new octave.

Roxy looks just about as stunned as you feel, “Well yeah I mean…but no one I’ve mentioned it to before has ever known about it,” she replied, her eyes trained on the road but her mouth slightly agape. “Those are some of my favorite books,” you squeak out.

“Oh…oh wow,” Roxy replies blushing deeply now. “That’s so awesome that you’ve read them too! How did you get into the story? I was lucky enough to stumble across them one day while at the bookstore,” you beam at her excitedly, practically bouncing in your seat.

“Well…” It’s Roxy’s turn to look extremely uncomfortable. “How about I tell you later?” She laughs off. You really don’t want to pressure her into something she doesn’t feel like talking about, even though that’s odd. You really don’t know why she’d have to hide how she found a book series though.

You feel the car slow down and you look up seeing your house. “I guess this is it?” she asks, surveying the area with her curious pink eyes. “Yeah, sadly. Thanks for the lift, I’ll see you later,” you beam at her. You really are starting to like Roxy a lot. She’s grown on you fast. “Yeah, I’ll text you later, we need to hang out soon” she smiles at you as you get out; you smile in response and nod, “yeah we do.”

You stand on your porch while she back out of your driveway. You wave at her once more as she starts down the road again and enter the house, slipping up to your room quickly.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

|From: Roxy Lalonde|

|Hayyy, wats up?|

The words burn brightly from your cell phone screen as you read them with your eyes slightly squinted.

|To: Roxy Lalonde|

|jUst laying on my bed reading|

|From: Roxy Lalonde|

|oh that’s cool. So i guess ill tell you now wat i didnt earlier|

You smile a little bit. She must’ve just been uncomfortable earlier for some reason.

|To: Roxy Lalonde|

|oh ok, awesome ^u^. i woUld love to hear how yoU started reading the series.|

|From: Roxy Lalonde|

|first u have to promise you wont treat me any different and wont tell anyone else|

You quirk an eyebrow up at the screen.

|To: Roxy Lalonde|

|ok, i promise. yoUr secret is safe with me|

|From: Roxy Lalonde|

|ok, so like…its kinda why i left my old school, cause no one treated me the same i guess? it was hard to function, ya’know? well, the truth is my mom wrote those, tats why i have the smae last name|

You gape at the screen, everything seeming to freeze. 

Oh…wait…what? 

Yeah, sure it was odd that she had the same last name but stranger things have happened. You lean back against your bed frame in stunned silence. You’re glad you started liking her before you found that out though. No wonder she was actually really intelligent.

|To: Roxy Lalonde|

|oh, wow, i thoUght it was odd yoU had the same last name as the aUthor Lalonde, bUt i jUst thoUght it was a strange coincidence. thanks for telling me thoUgh, i promise i won’t be any different towards yoU ^u^|

|From: Roxy Lalonde|

|oh tahnks ;) im glad u understand. ppl treated me differntly lot after id tell them that|

|To: Roxy Lalonde|

|yoUr secret is safe with me|

|From: Roxy Lalonde|

|ok, well im gonna go sleep my hangover off, so ill see u tomrrw mornin when i pick you up, goodnight <3|

|To: Roxy Lalonde|

|oh, ok, thanks. good night Roxy|

Wow. You lay back, resting your head on your pillow. That was a shock. 

After a while longer of reading, you get up and shut everything down, and lay down in your bed. You let your eyes slide shut and smile slightly to yourself.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this took so long. I'm in college though.

You wake up to the sound of your alarm again. Seriously, why hadn’t you gotten a less annoying alarm by now? You roughly slap your hand down on it, simultaneously shutting it off and sending it skittering across your floor. Groaning you drag yourself up and grab your clothes for the day and head to the bathroom.

Feeling successfully refreshed as you walk back into your room, you dry your short hair, making it poof up in a soft dark afro. Walking over to your desk, you pick your phone up to check the time to see a new message.

|From: Roxy Lalonde|

|hey i was wondering when you wanted me to come pick u up|

Oh…you had completely forgotten about Roxy’s offer; it looks like she hasn’t though. You frantically click at the keys, returning the message, thankful that you get up early enough that you were probably still in the safe zone for time.

|To: Roxy Lalonde|

|oh yeah, i guess if yoU are wanting to, yoU can stop by anytime that is convenient?|

You send it and quickly start to pull your things together. After organizing everything into a neat stack, you get dressed, in a simple t-shirt and skinny jeans. Even skinny jeans are a little loose so you make sure to be careful whilst wearing them, sliding a small belt through the loops expertly. 

Sighing, you plop down into your chair just as your phone buzzes again. You check the screen to, yes it is in fact Roxy.

|From: Roxy Lalonde|

|well i am leavin my house i will b there n liek 5 mints  
*minute|

|To: Roxy Lalonde|

|ok!|

You set your phone down, blowing air out slowly. Grabbing up all your books you set them on your desk like you normally would and get everything ready to go. After pacing for about a minute you finally sit back down and twiddle your thumbs together. You idly register the sounds of the shower coming on for your brother in the bathroom.

Finally, you hear a buzz and you immediately have your phone, flipping to the messages.

|From: Roxy Lalonde|

| hey im heer !|  
You smile nervously, your lips stretching out over your white teeth. It seems like perfect timing, since your brother won’t intercept you.

You snatch all your books up and hug them to your chest, walking swiftly downstairs.

“Where are you going?” you hear a gruff voice ask. You stop in your tracts, slowly turning your face towards the voice. 

Your view is met with the face of your father who’s staring at you over his paper. You don’t really talk to your father much because he’s basically a slightly different version of your brother. He’s quieter, but when he talks, half the times the words sting that much more. His typical indifference hurts as well.

“Uhm. My friend is picking me up for school,” you mutter, trying for a strained smile, but it doesn’t meet your lime eyes. He levels a glare off at you, “Friends? Since when do you have friends?” he asks deadpan. You narrow your eyes a fraction, “Well anyway yeah she’s coming to pick me up so no worries.” “Whatever,” he replies, going back to his paper. 

Slipping out of the door, you sigh gratefully, stopping to shift your books around. You look up and notice the hot pink bug sitting in your driveway. You jump slightly, surprised; then you briskly walk to the car and slide inside. 

“G’Morning!” Roxy beams at you, then swinging her head around to back out of your narrow driveway. “Morning,” you retort quietly, buckling up and then staring at the books in your lap. 

After Roxy has straightened her small car up and is on the way to school, you see her glance over with your peripherals. “What’s wrong?” she ask, voice laced with concern. You lift your face up to look at her, and she’s glancing at you whenever she can.

“Oh nothing, I just feel kind of bad for you picking me up,” you kind of blush and look back down at your scrawny hands. Roxy smiles, sadness tinging it. “It’s no problem, that’s what friends do.” She looks back at the road not really saying much. You feel as though you’ve offended her. You start bouncing your thin legs as you look out of the window. Autumn is starting to take over, though the heat of summer hasn’t yet forfeited its control over to the grips of winter yet.

The car slides effortlessly into the parking spot and you watch as students walk to the building. 

“Hey,” Roxy breaks the silence, successfully pulling your attention to her. You swivel your head back around to look at her and worry is still shadowing her eyes. “Seriously, I mean I know I look dumb and all but what’s wrong?” 

You quirk your eyebrow slightly,“Nothing? I’m being serious, I mean nothing out of the ordinary?” Your eyebrows furrow as you try to think of anything that would be out of the normal. She pulls the side of her mouth back in a look of aggravation and slides her hand over to take yours. You look down at her healthy looking hand encompassing your bony one. 

“I hate to pry…” she looks to the side, stopping for a second, “but…do…do you not eat properly or I mean? Because every time I’ve been around you since I’ve gotten here, you don-don’t eat much or socialize and I’m just really worried about you!” She finishes turning her bright pink eyes back at you. You stare at her, your mouth slightly agape and lacking a response. Finally you move, “Uh…,” you start off nervously, looking up to the right. “I mean. I think I look better like this because I mean, I-I don’t really look that great and I can always get smaller,” you reply nervously still not meeting Roxy’s eyes. 

And you know you are thin, but you’re not that thin right? You don’t like eating because it’s become a habit not to, since every time you do you get ridicule mainly from your brother. And he’s always around since you are twins.

Roxy gives you a expression backed glare. “Calliopeee you are beautiful and I don’t know why you think you’re not, but that needs ta stop girl.” She states and she reaches behind the seat to grab her stuff. You just sit there for a second, kind of. Blank. You really don’t know how to respond because you’ve never really gotten positive support from anyone.

The driver door slams shut and Roxy circles the car to your side, waiting for you. You quickly gather up your books in your arms and hop out, closing the door behind you. You draw your lips back into what you hope is a smile and she cocks her head to the side slightly. You both silently walk towards the building.

Wow there weren’t as many people here, since this was earlier than you usually got here. Some people gave you glances but your brother’s usual group of tormenters was not present at the moment.

“What’s wrong?” Roxy’s voice pulls you out of your scan of the crowd. You turn your head and she has that questioning look on her face. “Oh nothing, just looking around,” you reply shrugging slightly, “I don’t usually get here this early you know, because I have to wait on my brother.” 

“Oh so you do have a brother! I was wondering but you never really specified and you know I didn’t want to ask but yeah I haven’t seen you hang around him any,” she smiles at you. You kind of…uneasily smile back. She catches on quickly. “Is there something wrong about talking about your brother? I didn’t mean to offend you if so,” she starts rambling. You shake your head quickly, “No I’m not offended or anything! I…my brother and I just don’t get along.” 

“So uh…do you have a brother or anything?” you nervously ask. “Yep! He’s pretty neat and all that shit,” she says loudly, smiling and twisting her hot pink bracelet around her wrist idly. “Oh that’s cool…does he go to school here?” You wonder out loud. She shakes her head. “Nah, he’s older than me, barely,” she scrunches up her face at that, “he’s getting ready to go off to college, I think he’s going to get a full ride at some mechanical engineer place or something, I’m not sure, I don’t keep up with him.”

“Oh wow, he sounds smart,” you reply, staring at your tennis shoes. “Yeah he is. He really looks up to the father figure even though he’s not around much.” You look up and see Roxy is looking off to the side now, holding her arms as if hugging herself. Her normal smile has faded into a look of sad thought. 

“Uhm…why is he not around much,” you timidly inquire. “Oh he’s out in LA making movies. They are shitty movies but he somehow makes pretty good money so yeah. You would think since Dirk looks up to him he’d want to do something with filming or something but whatevs.” Her smile comes back but it doesn’t seem to meet her eyes.

You look over and see a familiar car pulling up, the car your dad drives. Which mean Caliborn would be out in the crowd soon. “uhm. Uhm Roxy,” you start, panicking a little. She looks down in confusion. “Can we maybe not stand here, maybe somewhere like…over there?” You ask pointing and starting to head that way. “No problem girlfriend,” she replies keeping up with you easily.

Shortly after the bell rings and you both head to your classes

All in all having a pretty normal, decent day.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> slight fluff in this chapter

Days turn into weeks and routines form. Roxy comes to pick you up in the morning, you both go to school and have normal days. Roxy always attends chess club with you and everyone gets along, always just having casual fun. After school or chess club, Roxy drives you home.  
You’ve had some fun poked at you by your brother, who’s also tried to tell you your friends don’t care about you but Roxy always has a way of calming you down and making you believe in yourself.  
Speaking of Roxy, you were currently waiting for her on your front porch, shivering slightly. You had a thin long jacket wrapped around yourself as you clutched your books tightly to your chest. Idly, you look around the small yard and at the sky while waiting.  
Finally, you hear the crackling of gravel as you see the bright pink bug pull into your driveway. You briskly walk over and slip in to the now familiar car.  
“G’morning Calliope,” Roxy smiles at you as she immediately starts to back out of the driveway. She knows now that you don’t like to hang around longer than necessary so she always.  
You’re staring out of the window when you hear Roxy speak, “Don’t you have a thicker jacket than that? It’s getting kind of cold now.” You look over at her, and her eyebrows are raised questioningly even though her eyes are trained on the road. You shrug, “eh, not really, but it’s not like I hang around outside that much.”  
Roxy’s mouth seems to form a tight line of disapproval but you quickly go back to staring out of the window.  
When you arrive at the school, you both walk familiarly to your spot in the morning crowd. It’s mostly you and Roxy, but sometimes a few of your other friends will swing by.  
Kids fill in the space surrounding the two of you as you both chat lightly. You clench your books tightly as you try not to shiver as the cold sinks into your skin.  
Finally the bell rings and you both start to walk, though you end up being separated from Roxy by the crowd. As you’re walking and trying to catch up, you feel a rough hand push you and you stumble slightly before another hand knocks your books out of your hand. They fall to the ground loudly and get scattered, people either kicking them intentionally or accidentally.  
You hear malicious laughter and look up to see your brother’s friends. They keep cackling and pointing as they walk by and you finally see your brother among the group.  
They finally disperse as you are left scrambling after your books. You hear the click of other feet coming towards you to see Roxy. “Sorry, you can go onto class,” you mutter. Instead though, Roxy quickly helps you gather your books up handing them to you gently. 

“You need a backpack, it’d make it a lot harder for them to do stupid shit like that,” Roxy said as she followed your pace as you both set off for your first class.  
“My father doesn’t exactly get me things I need. He’s all about my brother,” you shrug. “Why?” Roxy inquires . “I’m not really sure. He’s always preferred my brother, while I’m like the nuisance. Pretty sure they wouldn’t care if I disappeared. Like for our birthday Caliborn is going to get a car, or at least that’s what it seems like, while I’ll probably just be ignored,” you state. Though you had to admit to yourself that being ignored was much more preferred than being harassed.  
“Wait, hold the galloping unicorns, when is your birthday?” Roxy turned on you, blurting out. Your eyes widen as register the sudden movement. “It’s this Saturday.”

“WHAT!? And I’m JUST now learning about this,” came Roxy’s exasperated reply as she began to walk again. You blush slightly, “I just didn’t think it was that important.”

Roxy cocks an eyebrow at you, reaching out and giving your hand a squeeze, “of course it’s important.”  
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-  
“You ready to go?” Roxy asks and she heaves her pink bedazzled backpack onto her shoulder, which she had informed you that her and her brother had done together. You had yet to meet Dirk but you were sure you would tonight unless he was at his boyfriend’s  
When she had heard it was your birthday she simply demanded you stay over for the weekend.  
“Yeah,” is all you say as you follow Roxy to her car. You are nervous but also really excited because you couldn’t remember ever. You had packed an old tote bag and some wal-mart bags with the stuff you would need for the weekend and left them in her car this morning.  
As you drive out, she goes the familiar route that would lead to your house and you stare at the turn to your road as you drive by. It felt weird but you were really glad you weren’t going home this weekend, this would probably be one of the best birthday’s ever.  
You end up on this one lane road that has trees on both sides. The road dead ends to a clearing to this large house that had a unique shape to it. “Wow,” you mutter to yourself staring wide-eyed.  
Roxy parks the car and you slide out, grabbing your bags and following Roxy up the steps to her front door. “Okay so we can put your stuff in my room,” she discusses casually as she looks for her house key. She unlocks the door and walks inside, holding it open for you.  
As you walk in sound surrounds you with a giant wave of, “SURPRISE!” You stare around where a few people you don’t know are and also where Nepeta, Equius and Aranea are. There are clusters of balloons and streamers spread throughout the large room and you stare around while Roxy just grins widely.  
“Surprise!” she finally adds, and you feel a few hot tears welling up in the corners of your eyes. “You alright?” Roxy looks at you concerned. “Yeah,” you sniffle, smiling and wipe at your eyes quickly, even though new tears come to replace them. “I’ve never actually had a proper party,” you admit.  
Roxy smiles, grabbing your hand and leading you over to the people you don’t recognize. Well you think you recognize one of them but you are in slight denial currently.  
“So Calliope, this is my mom, Rose, my bro Dirk, and his boyfriend Jake,” she points at each one respectively. You feel anxious as soon as Roxy points out Rose. She is the author you admired after all and you were having a hard time not shaking with combined excitement and utter nervousness.  
She smiles at you though and holds out her hand to shake yours, “pleasure to meet you, Roxy has been discussing you quite a bit,” she smiles sweetly, her purple eyes squinting a bit with the smile. She was really just as lovely as you had imagined she would be.  
The boy standing beside her holds up a hand “Hey there,” he smirks, his other hand clasped in the other boy’s, who didn’t seem to be paying attention at all. “Don’t mind him he’s always off in his own world,” Dirk waves off. “Okay,” you chuckle and smile slightly. As your turning to walk to the people you do know, you see Dirk make a kissing face at Roxy when they think you can’t see. Roxy blushes heavily and slaps Dirk on the shoulder. “Ow, what the hell Rox, I just got my tattoo there,” he grumbles, stepping out of Roxy’s reach before she can do anything else.  
You both walk over to the other’s. Nepeta pounces first, wrapping her tiny arms around you neck but almost dragging you down regardless. “Happy buurthay,” she giggles as she steps back. Aranea smiles at you, “I’m glad we could have this celebration for you, you deserve it.” Equius nods, his arms crossed as he stands by Nepeta’s side. “Happy birthday,” he curtly says, giving a tiny hint of a smile as well.  
“Time for cake!!!” Roxy exclaims, turning you to lead you back to the table. Somehow a cake had appeared there with eighteen candles lit neatly and evenly throughout the cake. They all proceeded to sing, Roxy quite enthusiastically and out of tune, the birthday song for you and then cheered when you blew out the candles.  
Rose passed out the cake and ice-cream, and even though you declined she simply smiled and handed you a fairly big piece. You smiled tightly back and went to sit by Roxy, staring at the cake. It did look really good but you didn’t think you could eat this much. You picked at it lightly, eating a few bits of ice-cream here and there. You look up at one point in mid-bite and catch Rose looking at you thoughtfully. You blush heavily and look back down at your plate.  
You blush at every present, and unwrap them delicately. You received a new sketchbook, a signed special edition of Rose’s book series and a very nice chess set. Finally, the last two gifts were handed to you. “I picked these out, I hope you like them,” Roxy blushes and looks off to the side a bit.  
“I’m sure I will,” you smile as you begin to slowly open the first one. After you get it unwrapped you open the box and pull out a warm, stylish pea-coat. You gaze at it for a moment, feeling the soft material. You’d never had this nice of a jacket.  
After admiring it, you set it down carefully and begin opening the final gift. It ends up revealing a nice lime-green backpack. “You seem to like that color and I thought it wouldn’t be easy to mix up with anyone else that way, plus it matches your eyes,” Roxy mutters.  
You smile, “Thanks, I love them both. I love all these gifts, this has been the best birthday ever.” Well almost birthday since it was technically tomorrow but that wasn’t a big deal.  
Giving everyone hugs, you all finally settle down to watch a movie marathon with everyone arguing on what to watch. Rose brings over pizzas and everyone digs in, devouring quickly and leaving barely a stray strand of cheese as evidence there was ever pizza.  
Finally, after several movies everyone seems ready to fall asleep and Aranea, Nepeta and Equius bid their farewell and leave.  
Dirk and Jake slip up the stairs and you hear a distant clicking as a bedroom door is shut.  
“Here, I’ll show you my room,” Roxy states. You follow her as she helps you get your things. She opens one of the closed doors to a large open room. Curtains were drawn over windows and the room had a few wizard dolls and a desk with her computer but otherwise was actually very tidy. There is a very nice looking T.V. hanging in one corner at a convenient angle from the bed. She sets what she has of yours down, so you follow suit, putting the rest beside it.  
She goes to sit down on her bed and pats the area beside her, “you have a very nice place,” you murmur. Roxy rubs the back of her head, “aah, yeah. My parents saved up quite a bit before we were born,” she half laughs.  
Roxy turns and grabs the remote for the television and turns it on. You both sit their idly for a few minutes watching some random late night show.  
“So,” Roxy says, breaking the verbal silence. “did you have fun?” She inquires, looking at you with her bright pink eyes.  
“Oh yes, loads,” you exclaim happily. She grins at you, “Good. So uh…I have another question…” she trails off, looking at her lap. You look over at her and she’s biting at her lower lip. “What is it?” you ask, your stomach starting to plummet.  
Oh no, what did you do wrong?  
“So uh,” she mumbles, “I’ve been thinking….I really, really care for you…like a lot and uh. I was just wondering if uhm. You would like to go out,” she mutters the last part and you have to strain your ears to catch it all. Where the plummeting feeling was, now lays a nervous feeling. Wait what?  
“Wait…you mean like..dates..are you asking me out?” You ask, stunned. “Well…yeah, I mean only if you want…” she mutters into silence again. It takes a moment for you to get your train of thought back but you finally do. “Yeah, that’d be great. I’d love that,” you finally reply. She looks up at you and has a relieved look, flashing a huge smile.  
She puts a hand on your face, “May I?” she ask, looking at your lips and pack up at your eyes. You feel your mouth go dry and you try to swallow, but nod nonetheless.  
Roxy closes her eyes and leans in, pressing her lips against yours gently. You feel butterflies take off in your stomach as you let your eyes slide closed as well. She raises a hand up your back and presses you closer tenderly, as her other hand clasp one of yours.  
You both stay like that for a few minutes before Roxy finally breaks away, a content look shining on her face. She leans over and flips off a light switch.  
“Come on, we should probably sleep,” Roxy says, pulling you slowly down with her. You both get covered up and finally Roxy turns off the television, flooding the room with silence.  
“Goodnight,” she murmurs happily. A bit reluctantly at first, you nuzzle up closer to her, reveling in the warmth and closeness. “Goodnight,” you sigh back, content.  
You couldn’t have been happier with how today turned out. Especially with the way your first kiss went.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry guys for the long wait. I haven't had the time much lately to sit down and brain storm on how to write things out.


End file.
